Rebels in Congo seize towns from government forces

Colonel Makenga, center, commander of the M23 rebel movement, tours the border town of Bunagana, Congo on Sunday. Rebels have seized several towns in volatile eastern Congo, including Bunagana on Thursday night, and Rutshuru on Sunday.

Michele Sibiloni / AFP - Getty Images

Rebels of the M23 group stand on a road after their troops entered the town of Rutshuru that had already been deserted by the Congolese army, near the Ugandan border on Sunday. Mutineers from the Democratic Republic of Congo on Sunday seized control of three towns in the country's eastern Nord-Kivu province, an AFP correspondent reported today. The rebels, known as M23, took Rutshuru and the towns of Ntamugenga and Rubare, less than 10 kilometres away on the road to the provincial capital Goma, shortly after 12:00 pm local time (1000 GMT).

Michele Sibiloni / AFP - Getty Images

Refugees escaping from Rutshuru are on the way to Bunagana on Sunday. Sporadic gunfire could be heard in the eastern DR Congo town of Rutshuru, seized earlier in the day by renegade soldiers.

Michele Sibiloni / AFP - Getty Images

Refugees ecsaping from Rutshuru are on the way to Bunagana, on Sunday. Sporadic gunfire could be heard in the eastern DR Congo town of Rutshuru, seized earlier in the day by renegade soldiers.

James Akena / Reuters

A section of Nyakabande refugee transit camp in Kisoro town, 324 miles southwest of Uganda's capital Kampala on Sunday. Rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo said on Sunday they seized the town of Rutshuru in North Kivu province after government forces abandoned it.

An official of Uganda Red Cross said that more than two thousand people had crossed the border into Uganda in the past few days to escape the intense fighting.

"It (the fighting) was only 40 meters away from our border so the people took off to come to the Ugandan side," said Kevin Nabutuwa Busima, assistant director of disaster management for the Uganda Red Cross.